HUNDREDS of residents have been joined by town chiefs in their fight to stop a potentially harmful compost site being built in the Hinckley countryside.

Despite already being rejected twice by the county council planning committee and the Planning Inspectorate in the last two years, plans for an open windrow composting plant in Fenn Lane, Fenny Drayton, have been submitted for a third time.

In the space of just a couple of weeks, hundreds of signatures have been put onto a petition set up by Michael Mullaney, Liberal Democrat parliamentary spokesman for Hinckley and Bosworth, against the plan for the 2,000sq metre-building which would receive as much as 10,000 tonnes of garden waste and wood waste a year.

This has since prompted members of Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council’s planning committee to stand side-by-side with the campaigners after unanimously deciding to oppose the latest application.

And Mr Mullaney is delighted to see everyone pulling in the same direction. He said: “I’m glad borough councillors have voted against these plans. The compost site will put more lorries on congested local roads, could give off noxious smells and be a bio hazard.

“The plans are still due to go to the county council planning committee who will have the final say on the matter. I hope they will listen to the borough council and the hundreds of local residents who have signed petitions against the compost site and turn the plans down.”

The open windrow system involves laying out long rows of compost which experts claim can lead to complaints of smells from as far as five miles away. The method is also said to release Aspergillus Fumigatus, which is a fungus that can cause serious respiratory damage.

To sign the petition against the plans visit http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/fennydraytoncompostsite